Weightless
by bravevulnerability
Summary: '"She's nearly dead, Castle. Maddox beat her to a pulp and I know you're off the team, but she needs you." He may be angry with her, brokenhearted and wounded over her, but like hell is he going to stay away from the woman he loves when she's on the brink of death. Again.' AU to 4x23, Always.


**A/N: Inspired by a prompt from the castlefanficprompts tumblr page, which will be placed at the end of the fic.**

* * *

It isn't pretty.

Blues, reds, and purples bloom and blend across her skin, coloring her cheeks, forming in blotches across her forehead, her jawline, and swelling through one of her eyes.

He's afraid to touch her. It would only do more damage, risk breaking her even further, but her battered flesh calls to his fingertips. Castle sucks in a breath for courage, grazes a gentle digit to the curve of her brow, skirting the butterfly bandages stretched across a thin strip of dried crimson and follows the swollen line of her cheek.

Her skin is hot under the whisper of his touch, throbbing and angry, and his chest tightens, like a vise around his heart, the metal jaws squeezing in closer, crushing the worn organ.

He had ignored the multiple calls from the precinct, silenced his phone during Alexis's graduation, but finally relented after the ceremony was concluded and his daughter was off to celebrate. He had answered Ryan with misplaced aggravation, but his irritation had fallen away at the frantic rush of the detective's words.

 _She's nearly dead, Castle. Maddox beat her to a pulp and I know you're off the team, but she needs you._

He may be angry with her, brokenhearted and wounded over her, but like hell is he going to stay away from the woman he loves when she's on the brink of death. Again.

He wants to hold her hand, cradle her fingers, twine them in the safety of his, but her fingers are brutalized, crushed beneath the grind of a heavy boot, the doctor had guessed. So Rick touches his hand to one of the single unmarred spots available, cupping her ear in his palm and tracing the shell with his thumb.

"I'm sorry, Kate," he breathes, tears crowding his eyes, filling his throat. He should have fought harder, should have insisted that he would stay by her side no matter the consequences, should have been there with her on the roof. Maybe if he had, she wouldn't be here. "So sorry."

She's been in the hospital for hours now, sleeping through her stay, but her brow furrows at the sound of his voice, her eyes peeling open and her mangled hands twitching at her sides.

"Rick," she gets out, his name a broken, gravelly whisper grating past her split lip. Something like relief flickers through the haze clouding her eyes and it punctures his heart, draws him in closer to her at the same time. "Came back?"

His thumb skims her temple, settling there when the touch fails to elicit a wince.

"Never should have left. I'm sorry, Kate-"

"No," she wheezes, her hand reaching for his, sending the pain ricocheting up her bones, pulling tears from her eyes. He catches one with the thumb in her hair, wipes away the moisture spilling free and rises from the plastic chair beside her bed to hover above her.

"Don't move too much," he murmurs, though it sounds more like a plea as he brushes a trembling hand down her arm, pausing at her wrist and cradling the delicate bone. His fingers circle at her pulse, assuring himself of the steady throb despite the beep of the nearby monitor. "Should I call a nurse?"

"No," she repeats on a sharp breath that has the tears multiplying. Deep breaths with bruised ribs is probably not the best idea. "Castle. Not - don't be sorry. Please. My fault."

Castle watches her swallow, her throat necklaced in bruises that resemble fingerprints and bobbing with the effort, but her glistening eyes hold his the entire time, desperate and yearning, begging him not to turn away.

"Almost died," she sighs out, looking so very exhausted beneath the injuries covering practically every visible inch of her. "All I could think about was you. Just want you."

"You've got me," he promises her, doesn't even spare a second thought to consider answering otherwise. She'll always have him, whether she wants him or not. "Still partners, Beckett."

"No," she breathes, tugging his brow into a furrow. "More than partners. Castle, I want _you_."

Her mottled fingers graze at his forearm, curling in silent askance, and he does his best to lean in closer without disrupting the intricate arrangement of wires decorating her hospital bed.

"Beckett, don't-"

She ignores him, gritting her teeth as she lifts the arm not weighed down by the IV drip, dusts her fingers up the line of his jaw until she can cup his cheek in her trembling palm. And even like this, even in the worst circumstances imaginable, her touch manages to send his heart soaring.

"I love you too." His heart stops, dropping like a dead weight and taking his breath down with it. "Should have told you sooner," she adds, her hand slipping to his neck, over the racing gallop of his pulse. "So sorry, Castle. I'm so-"

"Shh, Kate," he rasps, catching the back of her hand beneath his palm before it can fall further, and carefully drifting in to smear his lips to her forehead. "No more apologies. Not tonight."

Castle trails his lips along the bruise above her eyebrow, ghosting along the sliced strip of skin, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek, and allowing her hand at his neck to still him before he can back away, give her space.

"Stay with me?"

The words are nothing more than a whispered request between them, subdued and practically inaudible, as if she wants the chance to take them back. But Rick threads his fingers through hers where they had remained tangled at his neck, feeling her grip tighten despite how much it must ache, and uses his other hand to brace his fingers at the edge of her bed, gain a better balance.

Her lashes brush his cheek as he leans back, just enough to meet her gaze, imploring and needful and so much more than she's ever allowed him to see, and then he lowers his mouth to graze the softest of kisses to her damaged lips.

It's cautious, delicate and a mere whisper of lips, but it's so unbearably perfect. With her words echoing in his ears, the tender flesh of her mouth beneath his, It's enough for now. More than enough.

"Always," he murmurs, hearing her breath catch for a brief moment, spilling out against his lips a second later. "I know it's never been said under the best circumstances," he adds, carefully smoothing her hair back from her face, vigilant of the head wounds lining her skull. "But I love you, Kate."

Not the best of circumstances, no, but this time she's awake, coherent and blessedly not bleeding out beneath him. This time, she hears his words for certain.

"Love you too, Castle," she answers, her thumb skimming over his knuckles, and he kisses her one last time, feeling her lips curve beneath his just before he draws away from her.

Castle rests their laced fingers on his thigh, readjusting to a sitting position at the edge of her bed, and she doesn't try to stop him this time, watching him with a smile that must hurt, tugging unpleasantly at the split skin of her bottom lip, but fails to fade despite the pain.

"Did the doctor give an estimate of how long you'll have to stay?" he inquires, skating his eyes over her battered face, along the injuries he can see, afraid to imagine the ones he can't.

"A couple of days, I think," Beckett sighs, cringing at the expansion of her ribs.

"You'll need someone to look after you while you recover, right?"

Her eyes slide up to meet him, intrigue sparking to life in the already shimmering irises, and for a woman on the brink of death, she's still breathtaking.

"Probably."

"It'll have to be someone who can handle your stubborness," he muses, watching her smile morph from lovely to amused, her unscathed eyebrow arching at him.

"Mm, don't forget about my maddening, challenging, _frustrating_ qualities too," she mumbles, squeezing his fingers as he chuckles.

"Believe me, I'm definitely not ruling those out. I think I have the perfect man for the job."

"Oh, do you?" she hums, her eyes falling to a half-lidded stance.

"Would you like to stay at Chez Castle for your recovery period, Beckett? Or would you prefer I move in with you for the duration of that time?"

Kate's eyes are drifting shut, clinging to him for as long as possible, before eventually fluttering closed. "I don't care. Just give me you."

Oh, painkiller induced or not, he's never letting her live that particular sentence down.

"Already yours, Kate."

It's a tricky transition, but Castle manages to relocate to the chair at her bedside without upsetting the clasp of their hands, careful not to stretch the link of their fingers. They have more to discuss, more than just her living arrangements, but for now, he'll let her sleep, allow himself to find peace in the signs of her healing and promises of a future he thought had been thrown away.

"Good," she rasps, her swollen fingers tightening within his before her grip begins to slacken completely. "Stay mine."

* * *

 _Prompt: AU from Always. Instead of being thrown off the roof to be rescued, Maddox ends up beating Beckett pretty badly until help arrives. As she is on the way to the hospital, Ryan calls Castle and tells him what happened. Becket wakes up in the hospital with Castle in her room. One or the other apologizes, leading to them establishing their relationship._


End file.
